Rather than hijack a “lyrical” thread
I once heard a street musician playing a tune on his guitar. A tune I had never heard before. I put a dollar bill in his case and asked him to play it again. He did. I asked him what the tune was “Streets of Gold by Sting” he replied.
I watched the youtube video. I know very little about Sting, but that is one fine tune, both music and lyrics.
Ever hear sn instrument of a song and fall in love with it without the lyrics?
I think you mean “Fields of Gold”.
45 years ago I fell deeply and permanently in love with “Body And Soul” the first time I heard Oscar Peterson play it. Several years later I heard someone sing it (Billie Holiday ?) and was struck by how pedestrian the lyrics are. No matter who sings it however well, the words don’t measure up to the music.
IMHO etc etc.
Lots of jazz standards, like “Willow Weep for Me.”
Also, the MAS*H theme song.
Easy. Wicked Game by Chris Isaac. First heard it in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart as an instrumental.
“Little Wing.” I heard SRV’s version first. The first version I heard with lyrics was by Skid Row, and my reaction was something along the lines of, “Those SOBs put lyrics to this? What a bunch of losers!” Then I heard Jimi’s version. I still prefer SRV’s.
Mountain Jam by the Allman Brothers. It was a few years later that I heard the Donovan song.
“The Ash Grove,” apparently the unofficial national anthem of Wales. I don’t remember when I first heard the melody, but I stumbled upon the lyrics (one version of them, anyway) in a Young Life songbook around 1988, when I was living in Milwaukee.
“Girl From Ipanema”
I am so old.
Beethoven’s Ode to Joy
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture.
In the Hall of the Mountain King.
Yes, there are lyrics.
I was conscious of my enjoyment of the song “'Round Midnight” starting from 1986. I don’t think I heard a version of it with lyrics until I got the box set of Linda Rondstadt & Nelson Riddle’s collaborations in the early '90s.
I can still take or leave the lyrics, but I still love the song and actively collect cover versions of it.
Herb Alpert and the TJB - “A Taste of Honey.”
Really, just about any TJB from that era.
That’s an interesting one. That’s originally an instrumental written for the Broadway version of Shelagh Delaney’s play “A Taste of Honey.” Looks like the original vocal version came later with Billy Dee Williams’ version, and, I assume, most well known with the Beatles cover on Please Please Me. And their version was very much modeled after Lenny Welch’s version.
“Love is Blue”. Paul Mauriat’s instrumental version has been a staple of malls and elevators all my life. I think I was 30 before I heard a sung version. It was only recently that I learned that the English version is a very rough (and, some say, very bad) translation of the original French.
“Casino Royale” by Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass. Another mall-and-elevator-music staple that I only later learned had words.
I heard that one yesterday and thought of this thread. The only reason I know that has lyrics is because some collection of sheet music lead sheets I had (a “fake book” of some sort) had “Love is blue (l’amour est bleu)” in it, with the English lyrics. I don’t think I’ve ever heard any version with lyrics on the radio, but I feel like I looked up the original years back on YouTube.
St. Louis Blues
Stars and Stripes Forever
Yep. Many of Duke Ellington’s pieces have lyrics, but they’re usually better as instrumentals. Early in his career Ellington’s manager, Irving Mills, owned a music publishing company. Mills would publish Ellington’s compositions, and would add his own lyrics so that he (Mills) could get royalties. Many of the lyrics were throwaways, in that they weren’t really intended to be performed. Eventually Ellington broke away from Mills, but even after that people would sometimes write lyrics for his music. Take the A Train (which Billy Strayhorn wrote) is better without lyrics. So are I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart, Mood Indigo (actually written by Barney Bigard), Satin Doll, Perdido and Caravan (actually written by Juan Tizol), Cotton Tail, Sophisticated Lady, and more.
I was aware of both versions yet had never put it together they were the same song. Thanks for that.